Where did you get your earthquake news?

Summary:Earthquake h its Virginia and was felt all along the East Coast. With cellular networks jammed with phone calls and SMSes, how are you using technology to contact friends and family or find out what happened?

In case you missed it, a 5.9 earthquake with epicenter in Virginia rattled the East Coast around 2 p.m. Eastern. With cellular service reported jammed on all carriers in Manhattan according to Gizmodo, how are you getting your news and reaching out to friends and relatives?

Both T-Mobile and Sprint just tweeted asking customers to SMS and email rather than make voice calls to loved ones to free up the network, and Verizon is reporting on Twitter that it is experiencing some "congestion" but no network damage. Some tech-savvy Twitter users are bypassing the cellular networks all together by using Google Voice to call friends and family.

As for me, before I even got out of my chair to walk towards the door frame for protection (ducking under a sturdy desk works as well), I was frantically searching Google for any earthquake related information but nada. By the time the building I'm in stopped shaking, I immediately went for my smartphone to check Twitter to see what happened.

Gloria Sin is a New York-based freelance journalist who writes about the tech toys that you can't live without for ZDNet. She has little patience for poorly designed user experiences, and is not afraid of opening the guts of her own machines for repair or hacking her gadgets for new uses.She has written for FastCompany.com, Popular Scienc...
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